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When former world darts champion Tony David tore through his opponents on the world stage, he was dubbed “the deadly boomerang”.
But blood plasma infected with hepatitis C was given to David as a child in Queensland, which almost turned out to be the deadliest boomerang of all.
Decades after those early transfusions, in 2009, David was on the verge of death with stage 4 liver disease.
“I had collapsed. The doctors actually told me I had about six months to live,” said David, who is hemophiliac.
His salvation came in the form of a liver transplant, the first of three that David needed to stay alive as a result of his hepatitis infection.
David was one of thousands of Australians who contracted hepatitis C through donated blood in the 1970s to early 1990s. Others were infected with the HIV virus.
He, like many others, was told he was not entitled to compensation for the infection or the resulting health problems that nearly killed him.
Now David is speaking publicly about his plight for the first time to call for action on Australia’s little-known tainted blood scandal.
Australian victims are demanding a royal commission to investigate the scandal, an apology from the federal government and compensation.
It was announced last week that victims of infected blood in the UK will receive around A$19 billion in compensation. A British patient needing a liver transplant is likely to receive between $2.7 and $3 million.
“What happened in the UK happened here,” said David.
“I know many who have died from it and I know what happened to me – they need to get a proper review in Australia.”
“I’m still alive to give my account. Yet so many are not with us and suffer more without monitoring and efforts to get them life-saving transplants.”
The inquiry heard the Australian Red Cross blood service estimated between 3500 and 8000 Australians were living with hepatitis C acquired through blood transfusion, including about 1350 hemophiliacs.
However, Australian victims say they never received the targeted financial aid or formal national apology that was promised as a result of the investigation.
David, now 56, was just a newborn baby when his parents discovered something was wrong with his blood.
“My mom and dad decided to circumcise me and couldn’t stop the bleeding the next day,” David said. “They didn’t know why.”
It was the first of countless trips to the hospital that Mr. David would make throughout his life.
As a baby, David’s body would swell with painful bumps and bruises.
For the first few years of his life, Mr. David received frozen blood plasma to help his blood clot.
When David was four, a blood test confirmed he had hemophilia.
He began receiving transfusions of fractionated plasma produced by Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL), which was then owned by the federal government.
It is made with blood collected from thousands of donors, which exponentially increases the risk of transmission of infections.
Prothrombinex (Factor IV) was hailed as a miracle drug for hemophilia B patients like David and would continue to be his main form of treatment.
Hepatitis C testing was not introduced for donated blood until 1987 in Queensland and nationally in 1990.
However, a product information sheet for Prothrombinex, kept by David’s mother and dating from 1973, shows that hepatitis infection from plasma was already a known risk for CSL more than a decade earlier.
“Although donors are screened, it is possible for recipients of this product to become infected with serum hepatitis if the agent responsible for this disease is present in the original plasma,” reads a warning statement on the sheet.
David said CSL had not done enough to protect patients from the risk of infection from its blood products.
However, heat-treated Factor VIII did not become available until 1990, and heat-treated Factor IV—the same drug used by David—was not available until 1993, nine years later.
In Australia, compensation is limited to private settlements through the Australian Red Cross or a limited scheme administered by state and territory governments for people infected between 1985 and 1991.
The requirement to trace the infection back to a single treatment lot or donor meant almost all hemophiliacs were excluded from the compensation scheme, the Haemophilia Foundation of Australia says.
David said he first found out he had hepatitis C through a blood test in 1988 when he was 22 years old.
“Your world is falling apart. I was young, going to university. I was working at the casino – and now I had hepatitis C,” he said.
David said he asked if he would be entitled to any compensation, but was told he wasn’t because other markers suggested he was likely infected before 1985.
A few years later, David said his health had reached its lowest point.
“I just couldn’t get out of bed. I was so sick. I had no energy. I felt sick all the time,” he said.
While at rock bottom and lying with a bad knee from bleeding episodes, David started playing darts.
“I was sitting in a chair just throwing darts at a board at home because I couldn’t walk for a while,” he said.
“I liked to play darts and I was good at it. Suddenly it was something I could do.”
To everyone’s surprise, David ended up representing Queensland and then Australia before becoming the first Australian to win a World Darts Championship in 2002.
“It was just a tough determination. I wasn’t going to let that stop me,” he said.
McKenzie and his advocacy group Infected Blood Australia are calling for a royal commission into Australia’s tainted blood scandal.
Queensland LNP senator Gerard Renick has supported Australian victims of contaminated blood and said he was shocked by the “callous disregard” shown to them.
In a letter to Health Minister Mark Butler, Renick called on the government to recognize the plight of the Australian victims.
“Given that the UK investigation resulted in an unequivocal apology to the victims from the UK Prime Minister, along with comprehensive compensation, I am asking the Australian Government to deliver both an apology and compensation to the victims of contaminated blood here in Australia.” , writes Renick.
Butler declined to comment to 9news.com.au.
A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Health said the findings of the UK contaminated blood investigation were specific to UK circumstances.
“The transfusion-transmitted infections that occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s preceded the introduction of the first-generation hepatitis C antibody test,” the spokesman said, adding that Australia was one of the first countries to the world that started using the test.
“The Australian Government contributes to the Hepatitis C Litigation Settlement Schemes operated by the State Governments that were responsible for regulating the blood supply prior to 1991.”
A spokesman for Australian Red Cross Lifeblood also said last week: “We know the UK inquest will remind people of a time like this which has had a lasting impact on many families in Australia and countries around the world.”
“We understand the pain he has caused and our thoughts are with those affected and their loved ones.”
Australia introduced a hepatitis C test as soon as it was available, the spokesman said.
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